DOCSLIB.ORG

Examining Untempered Social Media: Analyzing Cascades of Polarized Conversations

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Examining Untempered Social Media: Analyzing Cascades of Polarized Conversations Examining Untempered Social Media: Analyzing Cascades of Polarized Conversations Arunkumar Bagavathi∗, Pedram Bashiri∗, Shannon Reidy, Matthew Phillipsy, Siddharth Krishnan∗ ∗Dept. of Computer Science, y Dept. of Criminal Justice University of North Carolina at Charlotte [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], Abstract—Online social media, periodically serves as a plat- of online social networks [4] is an effective strategy to recruit form for cascading polarizing topics of conversation. The inherent members, instigate the public, and ultimately culminate in community structure present in online social networks (ho- riots and violence as witnessed recently in Charlottesville and mophily) and the advent of fringe outlets like Gab have created online “echo chambers” that amplify the effects of polarization, Portland. Due to the threat of violence that these groups bring which fuels detrimental behavior. Recently, in October 2018, with them, analyzing the online dynamics of conversations and Gab made headlines when it was revealed that Robert Bowers, interactions in such social media sites is an important problem the individual behind the Pittsburgh Synagogue massacre, was that the research community is trying to address [5], [6]. an active member of this social media site and used it to In this work, using the well-known propagation mechanism express his anti-Semitic views and discuss conspiracy theories. Thus to address the need of automated data-driven analyses of information cascades [7], we demonstrate how polarized of such fringe outlets, this research proposes novel methods to conversations take shape on Gab. By analyzing 34M posts discover topics that are prevalent in Gab and how they cascade and 3.7M cascades built from conversations on Gab, we show within the network. Specifically, using approximately 34 million that there are five different classes of conversation cascades, posts, and 3.7 million cascading conversation threads with close where each type shows varied level of user participation, to 300k users; we demonstrate that there are essentially five cascading patterns that manifest in Gab and the most “viral” and responses. Along with analyzing structural properties , ones begin with an echo-chamber pattern and grow out to the we emphasize the post level details of the cascades with an entire network. Also, we empirically show, through two models algorithm to classify hashtags, and eventually cascades into viz. Susceptible-Infected and Bass, how the cascades structurally topics. We observe that controversial topics are adopted by evolve from one of the five patterns to the other based on the users that are more strongly connected and also these topics topic of the conversation with upto 84% accuracy. generate larger cascades. By analyzing structural dynamics of Index Terms—Polarized conversations, conversation cascades, conversation topics, Cascade evolution models conversation cascades on Gab, we observe that all cascades start with a simple linear pattern and evolve into other patterns when a topic becomes viral and more users join the conver- I. INTRODUCTION sation. We found that the average time and average posts to Fringe social media sites, such as Gab, 8chan, and PewTube, make an evolution on Gab is 1.5 days and atleast 3 posts have become a fertile ground for individuals and groups with respectively on average. We model this evolution of cascades far right and extreme far right views to post and share their using popular network growth models like Susceptible-Infected messages in an unfettered manner and to galvanize supporters model [8] and Bass model [9]. Our best model fit give upto for their cause [1]. While most mainstream social media like 84% accuracy. Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook moderate their content and Essentially, we answer the following research questions with deplatform more extreme users and groups, the emergence of our corresponding contributions in this broad study of Gab: outlets like 8chan and Gab.ai have given radical groups large • What are the types of cascading behavior in Gab content delivery networks to broadcast their polarizing mes- conversations? We study conversation patterns and their sages. The echo chamber effects in these social networks [2], dynamics in Gab as cascades and provide metrics to [3], are often amplified via online conversations and interac- measure structural patterns within conversations. tions that occur on social networks. In recent times, we have • Can we characterize user relationship and types of observed that such interactions, combined with the exploitation topics in Gab conversations? We propose an algorithm Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for to cluster topics that circulate in conversation cascades personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not and our results show that the polarizing topics gain lots made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear of traction in Gab conversations. this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components • of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with Can we study evolution of Gab conversations using credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to the cascades? We give pathways for Gab conversation redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request cascades to evolve over time. To capture this evolution permissions from [email protected]. patterns algorithmically, we use the Susceptible-Infected ASONAM ’19, August 27-30, 2019, Vancouver, Canada model [8] and the Bass model [9]. © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-6868-1/19/08 http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3341161.3343695 II. RELATED WORK Related work of our research can be split into three sections: i) Applications of Gab analysis ii) Cascading behavior in social media iii) Quantitative analysis of topics in social media . The use of social media to study radicalization [10], dis- crimination [11], and fringe web communities [12] is gaining traction over the past few years. Particularly, past studies highlights the fact that the advent of Gab.com creates a scope to analyze topics like alt-right echo-chamber and hate speech research [1], [2]. Most notably, the recent work studied the spread of hate speech among Gab users with the help of repost cascades and friend/follower network [6]. Our research adds an extra dimension to existing Gab works, in which we analyze Fig. 1: Timeseries of frequency posts, replies, and reshares from the origin of gab.com(August 2016) until the forum went down on the last week of October its conversations, provide analysis on growth of topics, and 2018 give measures and metrics to study conversation structure and evolution in the perspective of cascades. Cascades in social media accounts for information dissem- pushshift.io2. Figure 1 gives an overview of the dataset as ination [7], which can be applied to variety of applications timeseries plot for the number of posts, replies, and quotes like fake news [13], viral marketing [14], and emergency appeared in Gab between August 2016 and October 2018. management [15]. These information cascades are crucial in The dataset is a comprehensive collection with 34 million incorporating machine learning models for variety of appli- posts, replies, quotes, about 15,000 groups and about 300,000 cations like: modeling influence propagation in the social public users information. It is evidential from Figure 1 that our media [16], predicting number of reshares using self-exciting dataset comprise of 55% posts, 30% replies, and 15% quotes. point process [17], and modeling network growth patterns as This data is available with complete set of metadata like time, an alternative to sigmoid models [18]. In this work, we reframe attachments, likes, dislikes, replies, quotes along with post and information cascades as conversation cascades and give novel user details. ideas on defining models for cascade evolution types in Gab B. Conversation cascades conversations. Just like Twitter [19], hashtags on Gab are means to add Microblogging conversations have been widely studied in metadata to posts that highlights topics. Some researchers the context of cascades for a wide spectrum of applica- defined the topic (class) of hashtags manually [20] [21]. Lee tions like emotion analysis [5] and topic modelling [25]. et. al. [22] classify Twitter Trending Topics into 18 general In this work, we give variety of cascade representations for categories using one bag-of-words text based approach and one conversations in Gab and give their in-depth structural and network approach. Wang et. al [23] propose Hashtag Graph- temporal analysis, response rates, and longevity. A conver- based Topic Model (HGTM) to discover topics of tweets. We sation cascade is a sequence of posts made as a response believe manual labeling is not scalable and unsupervised algo- or reply to other posts/users, together act as a conversation. rithms are not accurate enough due to the nature of hashtags, With available posts, replies and quotes/reshares from Gab, thus we propose a supervised semi-automated procedure to we construct conversation cascades, where each cascade is classify hashtags. one complete conversation. Nodes in each cascade represent original post/reply/quote and edges represent reply/quote of III. PRELIMINARIES post/reply/quote. Conversation cascade and construction process: A con- In this section, we briefly describe about the dataset and versation cascade is a directed graph G = (V ;E ), where terminologies in our methods. c c c Vc is a set of posts/replies/quotes and Ec is a set of edges A. Dataset Description connecting posts ordered by time. We represent a node/post in the cascade as P (v; t), where v 2 Vc is a post appearing in Gab.com/Gab.ai is a social media forum, founded in 2016, the social media at time t.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Effects of Content Likeability, Content Credibility
    Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research This paper is available online at ISSN 0718–1876 Electronic Version www.jtaer.com VOL 15 / ISSUE 3 / SEPTEMBER 2020 / 1-19 DOI: 10.4067/S0718-18762020000300102 © 2020 Universidad de Talca - Chile The Effects of Content Likeability, Content Credibility, and Social Media Engagement on Users’ Acceptance of Product Placement in Mobile Social Networks Ivan Ka Wai Lai 1 and Yide Liu 2 1 City University of Macau, Faculty of International Tourism and Management, Taipa, Macau, [email protected] 2 Macau University of Science and Technology, School of Business, Taipa, Macau, [email protected] Received 29 August 2018; received in revised form 11 June 2019; accepted 1 October 2019 Abstract Nowadays, product placements are commonly presented on mobile social media but related studies are rare. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of content likeability, content credibility, and social media engagement on users’ acceptance of product placement in mobile social networks. The results of the online survey indicate that content likeability is an antecedent of social media engagement and content credibility; social media engagement has an influence on content credibility; and content likeability, content credibility, and social media engagement both directly affect user acceptance of product placement in mobile social networks. Furthermore, social media engagement has an interaction effect with content likeability on the content credibility of mobile social networks. The results of the multi-group analysis indicate that young adults show differences with middle-aged adults in the direct effect of content likeability on social media engagement and in the interaction effect of content credibility and social media engagement on the acceptance of product placement in mobile social networks.
    [Show full text]
  • Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Marketing Papers Wharton Faculty Research 1-2018 Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook Dokyun Lee Kartik Hosanagar University of Pennsylvania Harikesh Nair Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/marketing_papers Part of the Advertising and Promotion Management Commons, Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Business Analytics Commons, Business and Corporate Communications Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Marketing Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Social Media Commons, and the Technology and Innovation Commons Recommended Citation Lee, D., Hosanagar, K., & Nair, H. (2018). Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook. Management Science, http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2902 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/marketing_papers/339 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook Abstract We describe the effect of social media advertising content on customer engagement using data from Facebook. We content-code 106,316 Facebook messages across 782 companies, using a combination of Amazon Mechanical Turk and natural language processing algorithms. We use this data set to study the association of various kinds of social media marketing content with user engagement—defined as Likes, comments, shares, and click-throughs—with the messages. We find that inclusion of widely used content related to brand personality—like humor and emotion—is associated with higher levels of consumer engagement (Likes, comments, shares) with a message. We find that directly informative content—like mentions of price and deals—is associated with lower levels of engagement when included in messages in isolation, but higher engagement levels when provided in combination with brand personality–related attributes.
    [Show full text]
  • 30-Minute Social Media Marketing
    30-MINUTE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Step-by-Step Techniques to Spread the Word About Your Business FAST AND FREE Susan Gunelius New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto To Scott, for supporting every new opportunity I pursue on and off the social Web and for sending me blog post ideas when I’m too busy to think straight. And to my family and friends for remembering me and welcoming me with open arms when I eventually emerge from behind my computer. Copyright © 2011 by Susan Gunelius. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-0-07-174865-0 MHID: 0-07-174865-2 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-174381-5, MHID: 0-07-174381-2. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every oc- currence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefi t of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps. McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs.
    [Show full text]
  • The Implications of Facebook Marketing for Organizations
    Contemporary Management Research Pages 73-84, Vol. 9, No. 1, March 2013 doi:10.7903/cmr.9710 The Implications of Facebook Marketing for Organizations Rooma Roshnee Ramsaran-Fowdar Central Queensland University E-Mail: [email protected] Sooraj Fowdar Central Queensland University E-Mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT With the explosive popularity of Facebook as a social media, there has not been much research that examines Facebook marketing and its implications for businesses. This paper represents an exploratory effort into this direction and analyzes existing Facebook marketing practices and tools, their benefits, and concerns associated with this type of social media marketing. Practical implications are suggested for organizations using Facebook as a social marketing tool and areas for future research are identified. Keywords: Facebook, Social Media, Marketing, Organizations, Word-of-Mouth INTRODUCTION Social media has changed the way organizations do business online over the past few years, and, as a consequence, social media marketing has created its own niche in the business world. Organizations are hiring community managers and social media analysts, and they are forming their own departments, separate from those of the traditional marketing and advertising sectors. As more and more users connect to the social network, it stands to reason that social media is becoming the increasingly accepted mode of communication for the Internet audience. The most visited online social network is Facebook, founded in 2004 and with over 600 million users and presence in over 70 countries (Carlson, 2011; Techtree News Staff, 2008). The Facebook site allows users to create a profile of themselves and explore the profiles of Contemporary Management Research 74 others, gaining an insight into others’ lifestyle and interests (Acar & Polonsky, 2007).
    [Show full text]
  • Social Media Strategy Guide Table of Contents
    power up your business SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY GUIDE TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 2 Where are you now? 3 Setting your Objectives 4 Know your Audience 5 Platform Selection 6 Content types by platform 7 Content Planning 8 Measurement and KPIs power up your business INTRODUCTION Social media marketing has matured over the last decade to become an integral part of the marketing mix for both large and small businesses. It can have a significant and measurable impact on your bottom line and – when done well – can be a powerful marketing tool. Whether you are trying to reach a local audience or launching a brand nationwide, social media marketing should be considered as part of your marketing activity. In this guide we will take you through the steps needed to build a social marketing strategy that is appropriate to your audience and achieves your business goals. 3 – Social Media Strategy Guide power up your business Section 1 – Where are you now? SECTION 1 WHERE ARE YOU NOW? The first step in creating a successful and robust social media strategy is to assess your existing social media efforts and that of your competitors. ASSESSING YOUR SOCIAL PRESENCE To assess your presence you must look at the size of your existing audience (if you have one) and how engaged that audience is. Start by asking the following questions: ✔ Which platforms are you on? ✔ How many followers do you have? ✔ How engaged are your users? ✔ How active are you? ✔ What type of content works well? ✔ How many leads has this content generated? WHICH PLATFORMS ARE YOU ON? Where do you have a company profile? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn HOW MANY FOLLOWERS DO YOU HAVE ON EACH? Overall, how many people follow your Twitter account, like your Facebook page? HOW ENGAGED ARE YOUR FOLLOWERS? Look at your last few posts on each platform and see how many people liked it, commented, retweeted, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of Social Media Marketing: How an Entire Industry Has Transformed
    University of Northern Iowa UNI ScholarWorks Honors Program Theses Honors Program 2018 The rise of social media marketing: How an entire industry has transformed Ryan Steven Doser University of Northern Iowa Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy Copyright ©2018 Ryan Doser Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/hpt Recommended Citation Doser, Ryan Steven, "The rise of social media marketing: How an entire industry has transformed" (2018). Honors Program Theses. 313. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/hpt/313 This Open Access Honors Program Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Program at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Program Theses by an authorized administrator of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE RISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: HOW AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY HAS TRANSFORMED A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Designation University Honors Ryan Steven Doser University of Northern Iowa May 2018 This Study by: Ryan Doser Entitled: The Rise Of Social Media Marketing: How An Entire Industry Has Transformed has been approved as meeting the thesis or project requirement for the Designation University Honors ______ ______________________________________________________ Date Matthew Wilson, Honors Thesis Advisor ______ ______________________________________________________ Date Dr. Jessica Moon, Director, University Honors Program Doser 1 Purpose With social media continuing to play an integral role in our daily lives, being a marketing major and interning for a digital marketing agency, I have real world experience with social media marketing and have expanded on that knowledge through thesis research.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Media Marketing Presentation
    Social Media Marketing Melissa Chang, APR (@Melissa808) Russ Sumida (@ParkRat) presented by Our Background Melissa Chang, APR (@melissa808) 25+ yrs Marketing/PR Experience (7+ yrs self-employed) 15+ yrs Online Community Participant 7+ years as a Social Media Professional 19K+ Followers/135,000+ Updates on Twitter 13K+ Followers/11,300+ Posts on Instagram Russ Sumida (@parkrat) 25 Yrs IT/Bus. Dev. Experience (9+ yrs self-employed) 25+ years Online Community Participant 7+ years as a Social Media Professional 11.5K+ Followers/95,000+ Updates on Twitter 6K+ Followers/6,000+ Posts on Instagram Agenda/Objectives 1. Social Media Overview 2. Tips and Hints 3. Strategies for growing and strengthening your community 4. Tools and best practices 5. Questions I don’t need social media marketing 1. I have been around for hundreds of years and everyone knows me 2. I have an unlimited advertising budget 3. My customers only use the Yellow Pages 4. I know exactly what I am going to promote now and in the future 5. My ideas always work from the start Introduction to Social Media Twitter I’m eating a donut Facebook I like donuts Foursquare Here is where I eat donuts Instagram Look at my donut! Youtube Watch me eat my donut LinkedIn My skills include eating donuts Pinterest My collection of donut recipes Google+ I’m just putting this donut here for better SEO Snapchat Here’s my donut … and now it’s gone. Periscope Watch me eat my donut, live!...and now it’s gone. Personal vs Business Private (locked) vs. Public Company vs.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Media Marketing
    Social Media Marketing Small businesses that are considering online marketing strategies will find this booklet useful. This booklet focuses on using social media marketing techniques to advertise your business. You may want to read this booklet in conjunction with other booklets in this series that profile other online marketing strategies. These booklets are entitled: “Increasing Traffic to Your Website Through Search Engine Optimization” and “Successful Online Display Advertising”. What is Social Media Marketing? Social Media Marketing makes use of social media sites to raise visibility on the Internet and to promote “Web 2.0 (or Web 2) is the popular term products and services. Social media sites are useful for advanced Internet technology and for building social (and business) networks, and applications including blogs, wikis, RSS and for exchanging ideas and knowledge. social bookmarking. The expression was originally coined by O’Reilly Media and Social media networking is part of a trend known MediaLive International in 2004, following as Web 2.0, which refers to changes in the way a conference dealing with next-generation users and software developers use the Web. It is a Web concepts and issues”. more collaborative use of the Web that enhances creativity and knowledge exchange. It is a more Source: Whatis.com interactive and user-driven way to help users participate and collaborate over the Web through open applications and services. It is critical, therefore, that content is accessible to the user; the user should Social Media Marketing Techniques be able to create, share, remix, and repurpose content. Some examples of social media marketing Technologies that are accessible and affordable like techniques are: Ajax (a method of building interactive applications for the Web that processes user requests immediately) • Joining relevant online communities and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) support Web 2.0 or social networking sites to help principles such as “user empowerment.” promote your business.
    [Show full text]
  • 7Tipstosocialmediasuccess.Pdf
    Introduction Social media marketing is more than a buzzword. It’s more than just a Benefits of Social Media passing trend or fad. By all indications, the use of social media for mar- Marketing: keting and customer engagement is a new factor in the marketing world, and it’s definitely here to stay. Engagement with customers through social media outlets has moved from the field of early adopters and into Generates expo- the general world of online marketing, with more than one in five small sure for my busi- business owners reporting that they interact with customers via at least ness: 88% one social networking channel or platform. Increases traffic/ subscribers: 72% Improved search engine rankings: 62% In particular, small business owners recognize the benefits of engaging with their customers and prospective customers via various social media Improved search platforms. The benefits reported by small business owners and market- engine rankings: ers who use social network marketing include increased exposure and 62% brand awareness, increased traffic to their main websites and improved search engine marketing. Despite the wider engagement Generated quali- of small businesses with social fied leads: 51% media marketing, many small business web site owners are hesitant to fully engage. By a large margin, the most preva- lent barriers to full adoption of Reduced overall social 2011 media marketing by marketing ex- website owners are questions penses: 49% about integrating the social media engagement with their existing small business web site and current marketing strategy. Thanks to the rapidly evolving technology that drives social sharing and social media marketing, even those most experienced in the arena Reduced overall find themselves constantly adapting and changing the way they use marketing ex- social networks as part of their marketing mix.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effectiveness of Social Networking in Marketing: with Special Reference to Facebook
    Special Issue - 2018 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 RTICCT - 2018 Conference Proceedings The Effectiveness of Social Networking in Marketing: with Special Reference to Facebook Miss U. Geetha MBA, M Phil. Mr. Subramanian. R Mr. Tomin Pious Department of Management Studies PSNA College of Engineering and Technology Dindigul. Abstract— Online Social networking sites have become popular across worldwide has opened the possibilities of mobile and unavoidable element in our everyday life. These sites have a social networking sites with increased features such as great influence in each individual personal life, where location-based services like Foursquare or Google Now. traditional are converted to trend in recent period because of Several social networks are available for different mobile OS social networking. Not only in personal life, these social as mobile social apps, whereas some networks have been communities are more interrelated to modern business environment. These influences have given great opportunities to optimized and customized for mobile internet browsing, organisations to concentrate on a new vision of marketing their which enable users to flexibly access and visualize blogging products and services than their traditional method. In India sites such as Tumblr or Pinterest via tabs. marketing through social network has grown rapidly high and its importance is increasing day by day because the number of With over 1.86 billion monthly active users, social internet users as of June 2017 is 462.14 millions, which is the network Facebook is currently the market leader in terms of second largest country in data consumption. Social Network reach and scope.
    [Show full text]
  • Profile of Corporate Social Media Consumer Segments
    Profile of Corporate Social Media Consumer Segments Beverly Wright, [email protected] Aberdeen Leila Borders, [email protected]* Paul H. Schwager, [email protected] S. Scott Nadler, [email protected] Abstract The trade and academic literature is replete with commentary about the need for companies to develop promotional strategies and to adopt media platforms that are more engaging and conversational with customers than the traditional top-down company directed one-way communication strategies of the past (Thomas, Peters, Howell and Robbins, 2012; Foster, West and Francescucci 2011; Deighton and Kornfeld, 2009). This viewpoint is supported by Christodoulides (2008) who reported that many customers view information about a company or brand that they obtained from blogs, social networking sites and the like as being more relevant, believable and important to them in their interactions with the company than similar company provided information. Social media savvy customers are by all counts a highly diverse lot and reaching them effectively requires the use of different messages for different groups (Heo and Cho, 2009; Stern, Rao and Gould 1990). For example, some social media users follow a wide variety of posts and enjoy the benefits of special offers while others have mixed feelings about being marketed to on social media websites. Interestingly, this new brand of customer also expects businesses to really know them, their life cycles, their personalities and the goods and services that they desire (Beauchamp 2013). Changes in customer perception and expectation have forced an increasing number of companies to shift resources from offline to online strategies with their corresponding social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, texts, email and Yelp (among others) and to implement customer analytics in order to measure impact (Pate and Adams, 2013; Kim 2006).
    [Show full text]
  • Official Guide to Employee Advocacy
    The Official Guide to Employee Advocacy How to Maximize Reach and Engagement by Empowering Employees to Share Content The Official Guide to Employee Advocacy 2 Introduction Employee advocacy—empowering your employees to share impacts your key business metrics, and how your employees are smart, quality content with their own social networks—is still growing their own networks and professional reputations. a nascent concept. Sophisticated organizations know that by making it easy for employees to share content they are naturally In this e-book you’ll find everything you need to know about extending their content reach and engagement, and connecting employee advocacy. Read on to learn more about the power of more authentically with their audiences. That’s because, on your employees’ networks, how to execute your own program, average, employee networks have 10x more connections than and best practices from companies who are doing this well a company has followers. Plus, according to the Edelman Trust today. By the end of this guide, you’ll be all set to begin seeing Barometer, people are 3x more likely to trust company information the benefits of employee advocacy for yourself! shared by an employee than that shared by a CEO. Analysis of LinkedIn network activity backs this up—the click-through rate (CTR) on a piece of content is 2x higher when shared by an employee versus when shared by the company itself. Tapping into the power of employees reaps tremendous benefits for your company, such as increasing brand awareness, attracting top talent, and generating sales leads. Likewise, a strong advocacy program benefits employees as well, helping them build their professional reputations, grow their networks, and become more engaged with your company.
    [Show full text]